My first exposure to the Phantom, that I recall, was in Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter, on the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. That was a Saturday morning showcase for cartoon pilots. This particular one had various King Features comic strip characters (mainly Popeye) who have been shipwrecked by a guy who hates the laughter they bring. The adventure strip heroes are brought it, including the Phantom. Then I saw the Charlton comic, which was even cooler. Then I saw Don newton, which made it that much cooler. Then I saw Aparo's Phantom, and Boyette and the others and some of the comic strip. It's just a great concept. You can do period adventures and say it's an ancestor; you can do it in the future and say it's a descendent (like Phantom 2040). You can do almost anything with it and it works. He was Batman before Batman, with the cool cave and the scary presence (which Lee Falk remarked about, many times). The Zane movie is good; but, needed a better villain. I would have gone with Catherine Zeta Jones as the main baddie, experience or not. She had the presence. The Sci-Fi Channel pilot film? Meh. not awful; but, not great. It has some good elements, some bad. The costume attempt wasn't great. It was fine until you had the big armored collar and helmet. That killed it. The villain's scheme was a bit weak and a little too much like Silver Hawk, with Michelle Yeoh.

The movie serial is great, as Tom Tyler looks the part and there are some good cliffhangers. the story feels like a Phantom adventure. Tyler was a bit stiff, here and there; but, for a serial, it's pretty good.

What a way for The Phantom to go out!

Well done, codystarbuck, as usual. This and the Ibex story have always been favorites of mine. Make you wish Newton could have done the Phantom forever.

Newton is a great place to start with the Phantom.  His first issue, #67 (at Charlton) features a retelling of the origin of the Phantom line and some notable members of the family, while the new Phantom takes his place.  The plot is very similar to the first volume from the Avon paperback novel series, credited to Falk (many of the books were written by Ron Goulart, though nt that one), which was adapted from the comic strip adventures.  You get several modern adventures, before they start looking at past Phantoms, as in 70 and 74.  There's not a ton of continuity in the stories, which makes following along rather simple, apart from the relationship with Diana Palmer.  In the strips (and the DC comic) they eventually marry.

The Jim Aparo Phantoms are worth reading, though more for the art, as the stories are a bit generic.  Aparo didn't do many, only about 7 stories and a few more covers.

In general, the Charlton years were pretty good, with a nice mix of solid adventure stories.  The Gold Key Phantom issues are also pretty good, especially with the George Wilson painted covers.

Since it hasn't been reprinted, Cody Starbuck takes some tracking.  I have all of the covers there.  The Heavy Metal issues are probably the easiest to find.  You can read the color special here:

 bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2009/08/cody-starbuck.html

The first Cody story can be read here:  


theporporbooksblog.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html

Chaykin is just one of those really great experimenters with the form.  He is a darn good storyteller, though his writing, in and of itself, can be confusing, at times.  Some of his stuff is just kind of okay (more in recent years).  When he was really pushing the boundaries, he was great.  Now, he doesn't so much push boundaries as try to tell interesting stories.  Crime fiction is his real love and his later work is infused with it.  Chaykin from the mid-70s to the late 80s can't be beat.  From the 90s onward, he had some interesting little projects (while working full time in Hollywood), most of which were overlooked in the hype and noise of the decade.  I highly recommend American Century, which he did with David Tischman.  An interesting through post-WW2 America, looking at the side usually hidden away in the Eisenhower years, though it filled the writing of men like Spillane, Cain, and Thompson, as well as the noir movies.

You have to have a tolerance for cynical, in Chaykin's world, though his cynics are usually believers in the ideal; they just don't trust that it exists in the people in charge.  Above all else, if you have never read Chaykin, read American Flagg.  It s the culmination of his evolution as a storyteller and it captured the times so perfectly, while offering a vision of a future that has very much come to pass, in many ways.  He is innovative for the first year of that book, then slowly pulls away from it.  he came back to finish it up, then relaunch it with a handpicked team.  That wasn't quite at the same level, though better than the others who touched the characters.

I'll probably touch on some more Chaykin, here, though I would like to hit some other books first.  Meanwhile, his generation of artists had some real outstanding talent:  Jim Starlin, Walt Simonson, Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, P Craig Russell, Mike Grell and a couple of others of whom I am drawing a blank.  Chaykin started as an assistant to Gil Kane, who was a man of very strong opinions, who also experimented with the form, in his career.  After that role model, he fell in with Wally Wood, another opinionated guy, and  Neal Adams (much the same).  Howie was a bit more likely to come to blows than some of his contemporaries, back in the day, when he looked like this:



though he was still a ball of fire in the 80s.  He's mellowed a bit these days, or just doesn't want the lawsuits.

The sad thing is, that you could get that stuff pretty cheaply, for a long, long time. Then, people went nuts in the 90s and the internet changed the way things get priced. Suddenly, everyone was pricing mid-range comics like they are mint, if they were older than 10 or 15 years, whether there was a big market for them or not. You always had things shoot up in value when there was a new hot revival (like when Valiant was becoming big and people started looking for Turok and Dr Solar or the Valentino Guardians of the Galaxy). When I found my first comic shop, in college, in the mid-80s, I bought all of the Deathlok Astonishing Tales issues for an average of $.40. Those shot up when the character was revived, with the mini-series. That you expect. Now, I see all kinds of stuff that isn't related to a hot book, isn't scarce, and wasn't that big of a deal historically, selling for way more than I'd ever pay for it. That's collecting for you, though; the real market price is whatever you are willing to spend.

Charlton and Gold Key are a lot easier to find in mid-grade and lower, at more reasonable prices, if you do your homework. Hermes does have their reprint collections, though their print runs seem small and pricey. There are other methods out there, for reading the comics, if you are so inclined, particularly older stuff.

The Justice Machine



So, this time we delve into a bit more of an obscure series. Set your wayback machines to 1981. The Direct Market had opened up the doors to a plethora of small publishers and do-it-yourself creators. One of these was artist Mike Gustovich. I'm not fully up on his bio, as he was never a superstar; so, info isn't exactly plentiful. I believe he was from the Ohio or Michigan area, working in fandom circles and some small press. His first listed work is Cobalt Blue, in 1977, a superhero book. The book featured talent from the Ohio/Michigan area, including young William Messner-Loebs. In 1981, he launched his own series, The Justice Machine, with his own Noble Comics. This was in a magazine format, with the first issue featuring a cover by John Byrne, and art assist from several people, including Bill Loebs (as he was then known. Gustovich created the series, wrote it and pencilled and inked it (with assists). The basic concept is there is a parallel world to Earth, known as Georwell. This planet is ruled by an authoritarian government and the Justice Machine is it's elite counter-terrorist unit. They have been sent to take down a rebel enemy, the genius Maxinor. Maxinor has escaped Georwell, via a dimensional gate, to Earth. The Justice Machine have followed him and fought their way to them. However, a rival, Zarren, the chief prosecutor, has trapped them on this world, branding them as traitors. The team ends up opening their eyes to the corruption and oppression of Georwell and end up throwing their lot in with Maxinaor and a billionaire, Hammett Dash, who has his own little artificial island, Newhaven. The Justice Machine are now outlaws and soon find them facing a new version of the team (including Titan's brother, Monolith), but also assassins, genetic experiments and other threats.

The idea was ambitious; maybe too ambitious. Gustovich was trying to mix superhero action with the fascist nightmare with Orwell's 1984. It created an interesting concept as a foundation. The team consisted of Challenger, the leader and weapons expert. He's the best soldier ever produced on Georwell. His wife is Diviner, who has telepathic and telekinetic powers, but is blind without her sensory cape. She hates Challenger for the death of their two sons, in a military adventure. There is Blazer, who turns out to be the daughter of Challenger, from an affair with another old Justice Machine member. Blazer can't control her flame power, without the help of her control suit, and is a prisoner of it. The giant of the team is Titan, who is an old comrade of Challenger and who has lived under the sadistic bullying of his older brother, Monolith. There is the criminal Talisman, who has karmic powers; when he does good deeds, he is filled with good luck. When he slips to crime, as is his wont, bad things happen. Then, there is Demon, the greatest had-to-hand combatant ever. He has lightning reflexes and speed, and can take down a squad in seconds. He's also addicted to a drug that enhances his abilities, in his quest to stay the best. So, you can see, these are complex characters.

The Noble Comics experiment lasted 5 issues. The first finds the team chasing after Maxinor and ending up trapped on Earth and betrayed. The second finds them falling in with Maxinor and Hammett Dash, and squaring off against the Guardians, the new specialist team from Georwell.. In the third they fight an assassin, Blood Master. Issue 4 has them run up against the Freedom Force, a group of heroes from Earth. 5 sees them them battle a monster, who was the product of experiments by the Nazis, conducted by Dr Victor Von Croft, who is the head researcher for Newhaven. Von Croft has been sympathetic to the team and helpful, and must face his past. As you can see, there is a lot of promise; but, there were many problems. Gustovich was an inconsistent penciller and his strength lay in inking. As such, the art was very uneven. The printing on the issues wasn't the greatest, either. The magazine format proved to be a failure and was abandoned with the third issue, and the remaining two were done in standard comic book format. Then, there was low distribution and publicity. However, there was enough there to keep the spark alive.

The Justice Machine got Gustovich enough notice to get him inking jobs at Marvel and then First Comics (inking Lenin Denisol on Starslayer). he was able to gain backing from an outfit called Texas Comics, to produce an annual, where the Justice Machine crossed over with the THUNDER Agents, in conjunction with Joe Carbanaro, who controlled the rights. The script was by Bill Loebs and featured art by Bill Reinhold, who had worked on the Noble series. It was inked by Jeff Dee and Brent Anderson. The story features a group of neo-Nazis, who have linked up with the Warlord and his terrorist organization, represented by Iron Maiden. A team fro Dash's strike force have infiltrated and try to get word back to Dash and Newhaven. Dash, sensing that this is big, tries to get in touch with THUNDER, but runs into red tape (in a rather comical scene). He dispatches the Justice Machine to get in contact. THUNDER is already on the case and the two teams collide and battle, before working things out and uniting to fight the Nazis. the story ends with a set-up for the next issue. However, a next issue was never to be produced. The annual is filled with action and some nice comedy, as well as suspense. The story is a bit muddled, with so many characters and Reinhold's art is a bit sketchy, at times. Like many small press books, it's a rough piece of work by inexperienced creators. It became better known for the back-up tale; the debut of the Elementals, from Bill Willingham (of Fables fame). That would factor into the lives of the Justice Machine again.

So, we have two experiments that have ended in largely unsung failure. Well, not so much failure as indifference. At this point, the only notice the Justice Machine has had is a quick dismissal in Jeff Rovin's The Encyclopedia of Superheroes (a great reference book for superhero characters and costumed pulp heroes) and another curiosity, the Heroes Unlimited roleplaying game supplement: The Justice Machine Sourcebook.

The Justice Machine Sourcebook, as well as heroes Unlimited, was the creation of Kevin Siembieda and his Palladium Games. Siembieda had done some inking on the Noble comics series, and worked with Gustovich to put together this sourcebook for his game. Heroes Unlimited was designed to be an open game system, which would allow characters from comic books and original sources to be used, under a set of rules. It was more notable for a Jim Steranko cover, plus images from Gustovich, Peter Laird (of the TMNT), and Siembieda (lots of robots). This sourcebook had a rundown of the characters, members of the Guardians, the Freedom Force, the characters from the Annual, and some generic characters and proved to be a nice reference for the Noble Comics series. But, it wouldn't be the end.

Three years later, Comico picked up the rights to publish the Justice Machine and launched the mini-series The Justice Machine, featuring the Elementals. The mini-series finds the Elementals brought across the dimensional barrier to Georwell, where they are caught up in the intrigue of a being, known as Darkforce, who is actually an agent for another power. The Justice Machine, acting for the government, has taken down the rebel Darkforce, though not before an aid escapes. That aid is instrumental in bringing the Elementals to Georwell, and recruiting them to fight the repressive government. they believe they are fighting for freedom; but, they are being duped by evil demons from another dimension. Meanwhile, the Justice Machine believe they support the rightful authority on the planet. They are sent to stop these new beings and capture them. However, they discover that darkforce is free and has opened the dimensional gate, to allow the shadow demons access to Georwell. the Justice Machine must work together with the Elementals to defeat the demons. They do so when the demons turn on Darkforce, who is using all side against each other for his own power. he is taken down by the combined forces and revealed to be a little girl with powerful psychic abilities, who is the daughter of Darkforce's aid. The Darkforce armor is just a hollow shell manipulated telekinetically by the girl. She will face trial, while the Elementals are allowed to return home. however, their presence has altered how the Justice Machine views its government. They had sown the seeds of doubt.

The mini-series was excellent, featuring a story by Willingham and art by Gustovich. It is filled with intrigue and complex characters, and plenty of action. It came when Comico tried to distribute via newsstands, as well as the direct market. This experiment ultimately failed and put Comico into financial peril, which led to bankruptcy. However, the mini-series was a success and a series would follow.

The series, like the mini-series, dispensed with the old continuity. Some of the characters, like Demon, got a bit of visual reworking, while the basic personality traits and weaknesses remain. The series picks up with the mission to take down the rebel Maxinor and parallels the Noble series, with the team duped by Zarran, who thinks they have been tainted by contact with the Elementals. Maxinor opens their eyes further, as does a battle with the new Justice Machine, sent by Zarran. They fall in with Maxinor and eccentric billionaire Donald Hamilton, who has created the artificial island, New Atlantis. This new series featured outstanding writing from marvel and DC veteran Tony Isabella (Ghost Rider, The Shadow War of Hawkman, and Black Lightning) and art by Gustovich. The series finds them at odds with Georwell, as well as discovering secrets on New Atlantis. Demon's drug addiction eventually gets out of control, making him psychotic and he appears to die. We explore a bit of the past of the team, in a couple of episodes. The series culminates in an attempt toby Georwell to conquer the Earth, which the combined forces of the Justice Machine and the Freedom Force defeat. A new path was established, when the series came to an end.

The Comico series is the one to read, as it has the best and most fully realized stories. Isabella does a tremendous job with these complex characters and adds some professional experience to the book. He eventually leaves the book and that is when it starts to falter. The series is still plagued by Gustovich's inconsistent art; but, it is much improved over the Noble series.

That seemed to be the end; but, never count this team out. It gained new life at Dave Campitti's Innovation Comics, where it crossed over with the Hero Alliance (another refugee from a failed company) and started a new series, with the team in new circumstances. it kind of floundered, introducing new costumes, including a horrible one for Demon, whose previous swashbuckling look well suited the character. Tony Isabella came back to write, which helped. However, innovation also ran into financial problems (the ongoing story of the late 80s). The team survived and ended up at Millennium. The Millennium series was done by the same team as Innovation, Mark Ellis and Daryll banks. Gustovich sold the series to Ellis, and had nothing to do with the Millennium issues, and little to do with the Innovation stuff, as he had more work at Marvel. There were only two issues at Millennium, before they ceased publishing it. Ellis later put out a trade collection and then an original graphic novel in 2014.

The magazine size first three issues of the Noble Comics series run for around $15, mint, but the final two can be had for under $10. Lower grades should net more affordable prices. They are an interesting read, filled with potential, though light on execution, and flawed by poor production. For my money, the second issue was the best of the lot, in terms of story and action, while the final issue had the best writing. The Texas Comics Annual can be had for under $10 and is worth the read, even moreso by introducing the Elementals. it's got plenty of action and quite a bit of fun, and brims with enthusiasm. It's not that hard to find, compared to the Noble issues.

The ones you want, though, are the Justice Machine/Elementals mini-series and the Isabella issues of the regular series. Most can be had for $5 or less, with only a few issues hitting double digits, mint. The Innovation stuff is even cheaper, as is the Millennium material. The Heroes Unlimited Justice Machine Sourcebook is the most expensive of any Justice Machine book.

If you like your superheroes with a bit more depth, give this series a try, especially the Comico issues. It's far from perfect, and not at DC or Marvel standards; but, it has an independent quality that those companies don't bring to their books. It's like a really good local band, who excels at live shows, whose studio album doesn't quite convey the experience of seeing them live. it can't match the big label bands, on CD; but, it can jam with them on stage and hold its own.

Apparently, I'm not the only fan, as in researching this, I discovered that the upcoming issue of Back Issue, from Twomorrows, has a history of the Justice Machine.  So if you are curious for more, check out that issue, on sale in February.

I was a fan of the Atlas/Seaboard line for some time, and had about 80% of their color comics. They're all long gone, though I still have issues of The Scorpion.

Great series of posts, especially these last few: love Chaykin, and I had a really fondness for the Justice Machine - the original Noble series, of which I had a few issues (and I loved the Cobalt Blue features as well). You're really hitting me where I live.
Anyway, I was just a bit too young for Atlas/Seaboard when they were on the spinner racks; I recall seeing a few of their titles back when I just started reading comics, but I never got any of them. However, as a fan of pretty much all things Chaykin, I made it a point to track down the two first issues of Scorpion a few years ago. I really like them quite a bit, even that second one with all of the art assists. You're right, the characters are pretty simplistic, but the stories really capture the feel of the 1930s pulps. And that art - yes, Chaykin was still learning his craft at this point, but like you said, the flair and style are already there.
Great posts, looking forward to future installments.